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User blog:Nodemaster/My MoM Wish List, Spells and Features
(Wish list) New spell proposals: Chaos: Chaos Aura: creates a half-strength chaos node aura, aiding chaos creatures analogous to Light or Darkness aiding life or death creatures, either as a city spell or a combat spell. Drought: enemy city enchantment; causes nearby grass, swamps, and forest to become desert, hills to become mountain, 10% chance each turn, eventually destroying all food sources for the city other than ocean/river. Any nightshade in swamps is killed if the swamp dries up. Essentially opposite of Gaia's Blessing. Sorcery: Sorcery Aura: as chaos aura, but for sorcery Blur, as a combat enchantment, should NOT be on a hit-by-hit basis, but instead affect each figure's entire attack each time it attacks. Then it would be WORTH casting sometimes. If the Great Drake swoops down and breathes fire on the WRONG place, the hapless halberdiers that would have been roasted can attack back after all. Instead of taking only 90% of the damage (who cares?) they take 0% damage, 10% of the time. There would even be a 1% chance of the Great Drake missing with its breath AND its claws in the same round, doing no damage whatsoever, and giving the blurry halberdiers a free shot at its back. Instead of being perfectly safe, the paladins might take their first strike at the wrong target, and get hit in the side by enemy swordsmen after all (each paladin figure checks separately). Blur is basically worthless as is, but this would make it both a useful spell for the player to cast, and an effective spell when cast by the computer, a way to counter first-strike, breath, and thrown weapon attacks, some of the time, and give the one-figure units (like drakes and giants) something to think about. Concealment: overland enchantment - Makes all of the casting wizard's units invisible on the overland map (including in cities), until an enemy moves to an adjacent space OR combat occurs. Not even Nature Awareness would reveal them, but once the bug is fixed, units which can see invisible or have True Sight would see them within their scouting range the same as they (should) do for normal invisible units. Mass Confusion: combat enchantment, a Confusion spell on every enemy unit every turn of combat, but effect is not permanent on the unit, affecting the unit only on the turns that it fails to resist (and even then sometimes not doing anything, just like confusion). (Like Terror, only worse.) Mirage: instant combat; creates an illusionary second copy of an existing unit in combat which has 0 defense, and vanishes if either it OR the original are killed. All Mirage attacks are phantasmal at half of the strength of the original, including melee, fire breath, thrown weapons, and missile attacks. The mirage can depict any existing unit of any type, but cannot cast spells and has no gaze or touch attacks, duplicating only physical attacks of the original. Spells cast which improve the abilities of the original, such as Flight or Guardian Wind, are immediately reflected in all Mirages of it. The Mirage is non-corporeal, hence can attack through walls and cannot be webbed, even if the original is corporeal. Nature: Nature Aura: as chaos aura, but for nature Rains: instant overland, bogs down whatever stack it is thrown against, like Stasis except doesn't work on flying or non-corporeal units. No resistance roll, ignores magic immunity, unit is stuck for 30/might turns. Hurricane: instant overland, affects a 5x5 (minus corners) area around any water/shore area, giving 50% chance to kill any units on water, 15% on adjacent land (like earthquake), 5% chance of buildings being destroyed in any cities in the area affected. Thereafter acts as Rains on the entire area. Typhoons: global enchantment, ALL units over water, whether flying or sailing, have a 5% chance each turn of drowning in heavy seas. No magic resistance possible, but does not affect water-walking or non-corporeal units (hence a nature spell gives 100% immunity to it). (It could depend on the type of ship, with warships having a lower chance, triremes having a higher chance of sinking, flying units being the most vulnerable.) Metamorphosis: city special (not enchantment), Changes the race of a friendly city to any specified race, for ALL purposes: unrest, taxes, productivity, mana ganeration, buildings and troop units produced *including* settlers. When cast, any troops produced there remain as they are, and buildings that exist remain standing. This would allow several possibilities, such as gnolls with a war college and alchemist guild, and new cities from settlers of races that didn't exist anywhere before. But only for wizards who can use nature magic. Insect Swarm: summons a swiftly flying swarm of poisonous stinging insects (speed 3, 9 figures). The insects are weak in attack, hits, and resistance (2, 1, 5), but reproduce rapidly (they regenerate) and are extremely difficult to swat in combat (20 defense). Also, their small size makes their attack an armor-piercing attack. Cost to summon is the same as Shadow Demons. (There are several spells able to render the swarm harmless, such as Weakness, Invulnerability, Doom Bolt), but common troops would get eaten like wheat.) Earth Rage: Global enchantment. Three to five earthquakes occur at random every turn, anywhere in the worlds (but not close to the caster's cities). Any units or enemy cities in the affected land are subject to the effects of the usual Earthquake spell. (The Chaos spell Meteor Storm can harm the caster's units; so can this one!) Casting and upkeep similar to Meteor Storm. Gaia's Guidance: Global enchantment. All of the caster's units on both planes benefit from Pathfinding ability while this spell remains in effect. Casting and upkeep similar to Planar Seal. Water Mastery: Global enchantment. All of the caster's units on both planes benefit from Water Walking ability while this spell remains in effect. Casting and upkeep similar to Wind Mastery. Create Moat: instant city spell. Creates a moat around the city the same way Wall of Stone creates city walls. (See proposed city inprovements in my feature wish list.) Admantium Skin: unit enchantment; provides 7 defense, AND makes the unit immune to the penalty of armor-piercing attacks. Arboreal Revenge: enemy city enchantment; if the enemy city has a sawmill, the nearby forests rise up and seek revenge. All the nearby grasslands immediately become forests, then the trees begin systematically tearing the city apart: the city walls go first, then the forester's guild and any merchants who travel in wooden ships, any shipyards, then the sawmill, and continuing the rampage at one building per turn (in reverse order of the building dependencies) until the entire city has been completely leveled, at which time the enchantment is automatically dispelled and the forests instantly vanish from EVERY square around the city (so the sawmill can't be rebuilt). Life: Starbeams: casts Star Fires on every enemy unit in combat, effectively causing a 15-point attack against every death or chaos unit (not figure, like Flamestrike) at once. Casting cost 30 (same as 6 Star Fires). Replicate: instant combat; creates a second copy of an existing unit in combat, which attacks and defends exactly like the original unit, but goes away when combat ends. The unit survives the battle unless BOTH the original and the copy are killed, and survives with as many hits left as the least injured of the two. Fantastic creatures and heroes may not be replicated, and a unit cannot be replicated twice in the same battle. Unit enchantments are not copied, only the unit, so the second copy has no spells on it to start. Death: Spectral Sight: friendly city enchantment - similar to Nature's Eye, except it uses the city's natural scouting range (no walls, walls, or an oracle) and makes it able to see invisible or concealed enemy units, as well as visible ones, out to that range. Curse: combat, single enemy unit, gives -1 to hit, -1 resistance, and -1 to block a hit (opposite of Lucky). Always works; no resistance. Wasting: combat, a single enemy unit begins to lose 1 hit per turn, unless it resists at -3. No further resistance is possible if the spell is successful. Vampiric Touch: unit enchantment. Gives the unit a life-stealing attack (no minus to resistance) in melee only (does not apply to range, breath, or thrown attacks). This very rare spell will allow undead units without life stealing attacks, such as Night Stalkers, Zombies, and undead troops, to regain hits, as well as create more undeads themselves. Can also be thrown on heroes, and other normal and fantastic units, of course. --------- Wish list: City rebellion should depend on the number of rebels in the city -- no rebels, NO chance of rebellion (duh!) but otherwise, 1 rebel is 1% chance each turn that the city rebels. That would make unrest actually matter more than just a few gold and production points difference. A city should not be able to use resources from squares covered by enemy troops, whether that resource is food, production, or mines. Surrounding an enemy city with a wall of troops covering everything should leave it with no terrain bonuses for food or production (the same effect as corruption, only while the troops are there), and if that means it doesn't have enough food, it should begin starving, just like a real siege. An alliance or wizard pact with a wizard would mean his troops would not have this effect near your cities. An alliance between wizards should allow their troops to pass through each other, and even pass through cities controlled by the other, even stopping on the same place without fighting. Roads controlled by enemy forces should be unavailable for trade routes, so blocking a road would be an effective way of reducing an enemy's income. Same with blocking shore squares with ships, and blocking river squares with land units. Trade between wizards should consist of an offer of spells, gold, mana, and/or items, in any combination, and a request for a specific spell, gold, mana, and/or item (if available). The other wizard should weigh the value of each, come up with a total, and determine whether to accept the offer as is, make a counter offer based on the original, or sneer at it. The way it works now, with only spell for spell, and very rarely spell for truce or gold for truce, is too limiting. Allow storing up food to a maximum of 10 per granary, the same way gold and mana are stored up, so you don't have to micro-manage food production every blasted turn. A new unit power, probably only granted to Death or Chaos units: Unholy Aura, or Aura of Doom, that would reduce all enemy units attack, defense, and resistance by their very presence on the battlefield (essentially opposite Holy Bonus), with no resistance possible regardless of spells. Possibly, creatures of the same realm as the one with the Aura would be immune to the effects, but not necessarily. Each race should get different bonuses from each terrain type, or at least have certain terrain they prefer and get more bonus from. Some examples: Dwarves: mountains are .5 food and +10% productivity Draconians: mountains are 1.5 food (normal 5% productivity) Klackons: hills and mountains are 10% productivity Gnolls: hills are 1 food and 6% productivity Halflings and Beastmen: hills and forests are 6% productivity High Elves and Dark Elves: forests are 1.5 food and 5% productivity Barbarians and High Men: grasslands are 2 food and 3% productivity Lizardmen: swamps are 2 food and 3% productivity, oceans are 1 food Nomads: deserts are .5 food and 10% productivity Trolls: all non-ocean is .5 food and 3% productivity minimum, even tundra Suggested addition to city defenses: The way it is now, you either have city walls, or not. How about these, for new things the city can build? Earthen Wall: surrounds the city with an earthen mound, providing a slight amount of protection against range weapons and giving a slight advantage in melee against attackers, thereby giving +2 to defense only for defenders on the outer ring. Costs 50 to build. Fort Walls: a wall of thick logs, sharpened on top, like U.S. Army forts in the old west. Provides +4 defense for all defenders inside the walls, and gives +1 to hit for all archers firing from the outer ring. Requires Earthen Wall and forest terrain to build, and costs 100. Palisade: a wall of sharpened stakes directed outwards at all angles, like a porcupine, making assault almost impossible. Provides +6 defense to all units within the barrier. Requires Fort Walls and Builders Hall, costs 200. Stone Walls: a wall of stone surrounding the city, with high towers at the corners. Provides +8 defense to all units within the walls, +1 to the city's scouting range, and +1 to hit for all archers firing from the outer walls. Requires Palisade and hill/mountain terrain to build, costs 400. Castle Walls: ultimate fortress, a high tower of thick stone, high stone walls with battlements. Provides +10 defense to all units within the walls, +2 to scouting range, +2 to hit for ALL archers inside the city. Flying attackers DO NOT negate the defense bonus for units within the middle four squares, as they are assumed to be in the tower. Requires Stone Walls and Mechanicians Guild, and costs 800. Moat: surrounds the city with a ring of water, impossible to cross for attackers without flight or water walking ability. Normally has a fixed bridge over the moat in front of the gate to the city, but with Stone Walls or Castle Walls, there's a Drawbridge which can be raised and lowered, thus making the city absolutely impervious to walking attackers, even water walking attackers. The combat begins with the Drawbridge lowered. As its combat action, a defender just behind the gate can raise the Drawbridge to keep out all attackers, or lower it again to allow sorties from the castle. Requires shore, river, or swamp terrain and an Earthen Wall or better. Costs 400, with a maintenance cost of 6. Some notes: Defenders get the full defense bonus from the walls against attacks from OUTSIDE the walls, regardless of illusionary or armor-piercing attacks. You can't 'armor pierce' the five feet of rock between you and the defender, nor does the rock care about illusions. But when an attacker gets inside the walls, either by being non-corporeal or going around them or flying over them, the defense bonus is zero, with the exception of the central tower of the Castle Walls, which is still effective against flying attackers. Attackers are able to attack adjacent defenders at ANY point, if there is only an Earthen Wall or Fort Walls around the city. Only the Palisade or better forces them to use the city gate to enter. There should be NO maintenance on walls other than the moat (which must be kept full and dredged out). On a per-month basis, rock walls are just NOT that hard to maintain in working order. Over centuries, sure, but not from month to month. Have you ever lived in a brick building? Have you EVER had to do anything to repair the brick that wasn't caused by an earthquake? --------- DP Category:Blog posts